Port Huron, MI - 30 Jan 2008
Arriving at the small park below the BlueWater Bridge I found Lake St. Clair completely open and free of ice. There was no ice at the mouth of the St. Clair River, either. A group of 8 Bufflehead (6 females and 2 males) were swimming along the near shore just a few feet from where I parked, and within minutes I spotted (6) Long-tailed Ducks drifting toward the mouth of the river from the lake. Grabbing the scope and camera(s) I quickly set up outside the car, but find that digiscoping in subzero weather against gusting winds, drifting/diving ducks is not a good time. I managed to grab a couple of somewhat decent images, but no keepers. My only consolation is that they flew back toward the lake once they drifted downstream of me and allowed a couple of flight shots as they flew by.
I then drove over to Edison Park and walked down to the edge of the beach. With blowing sand now a part of the mix I didn't stay long. I did scope a single female Surf Scoter among a large raft of Redhead and Canvasback. A single adult Iceland Gull was also drifting with the group of ducks, but it was too far to get a digiscoped image. It was an all-white gull with a yellow bill (somewhat small) and for a while I thought it might be a Kittiwake. It had just a touch of light gray along the tips of its primaries and stood out against the surrounding Herring Gulls. After a few minutes I headed back to the bridge and found a Glaucous Gull flying along the opposite bank among a group of Herring and Ring-billed Gulls. Not a bad hour's worth of birding.
Edison Park, St. Clair, Michigan, US
Jan 30, 2008 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Protocol: Stationary
Checklist Comments: I decided to take the afternoon from work and run up to Pt. Huron to look for Long-tailed Ducks. With this weekend's pending snow storm (up to 12") It would be my only chance to do any birding in the sun. It was bitterly cold despite rain and 40ºF temps yesterday. Windchills were -5 to -10ºF and winds were gusting to 40 mph.
7 species
Canvasback (Aythya valisineria) 12
Redhead (Aythya americana) 12
Surf Scoter (Melanitta perspicillata) 1
Long-tailed Duck (Clangula hyemalis) 6
Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola) 8
Glaucous Gull (Larus hyperboreus) 1 After a few minutes I headed back to the bridge and found a Glaucous Gull flying along the opposite bank among a group of Herring and Ring-billed Gulls.
Iceland Gull (Larus glaucoides) 1 A single adult Iceland Gull was also drifting with the group of ducks, but it was too far to get a digiscoped image. It was an all-white gull with a yellow bill (somewhat small) and for a while I thought it might be a Kittiwake. It had just a touch of light gray along the tips of its primaries and stood out against the surrounding Herring Gulls.
View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S4
This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)
Jan 30, 2008 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Protocol: Stationary
Checklist Comments: I decided to take the afternoon from work and run up to Pt. Huron to look for Long-tailed Ducks. With this weekend's pending snow storm (up to 12") It would be my only chance to do any birding in the sun. It was bitterly cold despite rain and 40ºF temps yesterday. Windchills were -5 to -10ºF and winds were gusting to 40 mph.
7 species
Canvasback (Aythya valisineria) 12
Redhead (Aythya americana) 12
Surf Scoter (Melanitta perspicillata) 1
Long-tailed Duck (Clangula hyemalis) 6
Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola) 8
Glaucous Gull (Larus hyperboreus) 1 After a few minutes I headed back to the bridge and found a Glaucous Gull flying along the opposite bank among a group of Herring and Ring-billed Gulls.
Iceland Gull (Larus glaucoides) 1 A single adult Iceland Gull was also drifting with the group of ducks, but it was too far to get a digiscoped image. It was an all-white gull with a yellow bill (somewhat small) and for a while I thought it might be a Kittiwake. It had just a touch of light gray along the tips of its primaries and stood out against the surrounding Herring Gulls.
View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S4
This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)
Heading back to Detroit I stopped at the foot of Southfield and found that all the ice from two days ago was also gone from the river. Only a handfull of ducks were at the north end of Mud Island, so I took a few minutes to shoot some Rock Pigeons in flight as they flew by.
A single hen Mallard posed nicely for me next to shore, so I took a few pics before calling it a day.
